If anyone ever asks me, “Hey, how was that IP World conference on October 4-6?”, I can ecstatically raise my head and crow, “The food rocked.” And how! The VIP luncheon speech was a canned marketing pitch devoid of information or personal conviction, but I dined on risotto and filet mignon.
The exhibit floor was decent, but lacked major brand names, such as Cisco. Alas fear not, gentle stomachs, as we were provided with sushi, steak sandwiches, and the ne plus ultra in convention cuisine, a 3 foot tall chocolate fondue.
I think that it was appropriate that Cisco Systems was not there in the flesh, but in spirit as the official sponsor of the cappucino stand.
Seriously, for a first outing, IP World Canada did a good job getting some of the big names in IP applications out to present, advise, and exhibit: Bell Canada, Telus, Allstream, Juniper, Primus, Toronto Hydro Telecom, Sprint Canada, and others. I even got to shake the hand of IDC analyst Lawrence Surtees. If you ever get to see him talk about regulatory landscapes in telecommunications, run, don’t walk to the seminar.
One thing the conference lacked were actual enterprise clients, which it was initially geared for. So, the exhibitees consisted of just the usual suspects milling about – salespeople from your competitors and industry investors.
Check out the gallery to see the cool VoIP applications and gear from the show.